HEAD COACH BARRET PEERY

When Barret Peery was hired as Portland State’s men’s basketball coach in April of 2017, he made a promise at his opening press conference: “Our commitment is this: We want to give the best product we can possibly give. We want to give our fans a team that they can put their arms around, follow them, love them and care about them. We want to give a team that will be easy to cheer for.”

In his first season, Peery certainly delivered.

The exciting, up-tempo, full-court pressure game that Peery promised was delivered. The passion of his players and team was engaging. And the results were thrilling.

Peery led Portland State to 20 wins in 2017-18 - the most ever by a first-year Viking coach and the most in 10 seasons at PSU - without playing a game on campus. The Vikings had “home” games at nearby Lewis and Clark College and played a total of 21 games on the road or at neutral sites.

The Vikings managed the best pre-conference record in school history (10-3), best road record ever (10-6), beat two Pac-12 teams in the same season for the first time ever, and went 7-2 in games against teams from other Division I conferences in the west. At season’s end, Portland State received a bid to the CollegeInsider.com post-season tournament.

And Barret Peery is only getting started.

In 2018-19, Peery will finally get to play at home as the fabulous, new $52 million Viking Pavilion has opened. The Viking Pavilion gives Portland State a legitimate Division I home arena for the first time and perhaps the finest facility in the Big Sky Conference.

In addition, Peery will have his first full recruiting class with six signees joining the Viking program.

Background
Peery was named Portland State’s new men’s basketball coach on April 10, 2017. He became Portland State’s 13th head coach in its 57-year history, and the sixth since Portland State joined the Big Sky Conference in 1996-97.

“Our expectations for Viking basketball are second to none,” he said at the time. “We feel like we can win championships on the court with great young men who will have an opportunity to graduate from an outstanding university. We know we can put a product on the floor that the city of Portland will want to embrace and be a part of.”

Prior to coming to Portland State, Peery was the Associate Head Coach at Santa Clara. He assisted first-year Head Coach Herb Sendek in the revival of the Broncos program as it had its first winning season in four years and placed fourth in the West Coast Conference.

While Peery’s first-year success on the Park Blocks was thrilling, and to some even a little unexpected, who could have been more ready for the challenge?

Peery came to Portland State after two decades of collegiate coaching. One of those previous seasons was as a Viking basketball assistant coach (2002-03).

In addition to Portland State, Peery has been an assistant coach at high-profile programs like Utah and Arizona State, at a Big Sky school; his alma mater Southern Utah, and comes from Santa Clara where he was the Associate Head Coach. He has worked with Head Coaches Bill Evans (Southern Utah), Jim Boylen (Utah) and Herb Sendek (Arizona State, Santa Clara) at the Division I level, as well as Heath Schroyer at Portland State.

“My family and I are ecstatic about the opportunity to be back in Portland and be a part of the Portland State Vikings,” Peery said. “We realize this is an exciting time at PSU with the construction of the Viking Pavilion as well as the new leadership of Valerie Cleary and her staff.”

Although this is his first Division I head coaching position, Peery had two head coaching stints to great acclaim at the junior college level. He compiled a career record of 178-30 in six seasons at College of Southern Idaho (2002-05, 85-19) and Indian Hills (IA) Community College (2011-14, 93-11). In 2014, Indiana Hills was the NJCAA runner-up, going 34-3 and winning regional and district tiles.

Peery’s teams routinely were among the top scoring in the nation. His 2012-13 squad averaged 97.9 points per game. In three seasons at Indian Hills, his teams went 60-1 at home and reached the number one ranking in the nation.

At CSI, Peery led his team to two national tournaments in three seasons and twice led the nation in scoring. The Golden Eagles placed fourth in the nation in 2006-07. Peery was the Scenic West Athletic Conference Coach of the Year in 2007-08 after leading his team to a third straight SWAC title. CSI was ranked number one in the nation for the last four weeks of the regular season.

Peery was an assistant for two seasons at CSI prior to taking over as Head Coach.

In his time as an assistant at Southern Utah (1998-2002), Peery helped lead the program to its first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance and a 25-6 record.

He also had early coaching stints at Utah Valley and Snow College.

Peery played collegiate basketball at Snow and Southern Utah. He helped lead the Thunderbirds to two conference championships while earning Academic All-League honors and being a team co-captain. Peery was an All-Region and All-State player at Payson High School.

Peery and his wife, Tracy, have four children: daughter, Kennedy and sons, Crew, Whitton and Meyer.